Shell Expands Plan For EV Chargers At Its Gas Stations

Shell has begun to equip its gas stations with fast chargers in UK this month – albeit at a not-so-fast pace. In total, 10 stations are to be EV ready by the end of this year.

2018 Nissan LEAF – CHAdeMO charging inlet

We don’t know what type of charging points Shell will offer, and for what price it will offer the service, but it’s fairly obvious that those stations will be fast charging locations with both the plugs (CHAdeMO and CCS Combo).

The company hopes that 20% of its fuel margins will come from non-petroleum vehicles in the future – although we are pretty sure that DC fast charging doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of potential for Shell…unless of course ~90% of the vehicles on the road are electric.

“Royal Dutch Shell Plc wants 20 percent of fuel margins from its retail forecourts to come from vehicles that don’t burn diesel or gasoline, as the company anticipates an accelerating transition to clean energy over the coming decade.”

Somewhat surprisingly Shell is already actively moving away from gas as its ‘bread & butter’, as the company targets that, by 2025, half of its retail income to come from sales of items such as sandwiches and coffee. We suppose if people are hanging out waiting on a charge for their EVs, that sandwich and coffee business should only go higher.

I don’t know how this is in UK, but here in Norway fuel margins are low, and the fuel itself is only a minor part of the fuel stations income. Food, coffe and other “stuff” generates more money. Now both Shell and Circle K are installing fast chargers on almost all new stations and many of the existing stations. And those that have fast chargers seems happy about it cause when BEV drivers stop to fast charge they are likely on a longer trip and as they are going to stay there for a few minutes anyway they typically use that stop as their eating stop.

So the fast chargers does not have to generate a lot income directly, it generates more income indirectly.

Most Cafes and shops have spent money on parking spots that have free parking and so does not generate income. They are just an expense. But they help attract customers and increase the overall income. Same goes with charging infrastructure once there are a certain level of BEVs.

She’ll better work on better sandwiches if they think those will make up a significant part of their revenue. Gas station food is almost uniformly awful.

What does surprise me is that we haven’t seen a collaborative between Tesla or ChargePoint and someone like Starbucks for co-location of charging stations. A 20 minute stop for a fast charge and a 6$ cup of coffee seems to make financial sense.

At least one company, Shell knows the era of Big Oil is going to fade out in the next decade. So they will probably survive. I don’t think the other sleeping oil giants like Exxon-Mobil have woken up yet.

This makes alot of sense in Australia along the major highways given the distance between our capital cities. Most petrol stations now have some sort of Cafe/Food option attached so this would increase visit frequency and visit times.

There is a Shell station near my house that has a Dual charger. It is the closest Dual Fast Charger near my house. We have several Level 2 chargers pretty close and a CHAdeMO only charger at the cracker barrel in the area. There are other dual chargers but they are around 20 miles future away. So Shell is doing it in the US. PS I live in TN so not exactly a Carb state.

With a gas (petrol) station at almost every intersection, and the non-fuel offerings being universally terrible (at least around here) I wouldn’t want to spend a second longer, or dollar more than is absolutely necessary.

Here in Ohio, gas stations like Getgo,Valeo, and Speedway have have become major eatiers. Food and beer sales have replace gas as thier biggest profit margin. I still don’t get why the Ohio turnpik don’t have a single charger if any kind on thier road. Look like a major highway (i80,i90) to have one

Here in Ohio, gas stations like Getgo,Valeo, and Speedway have have become major eatiers. Food and beer sales have replace gas as thier biggest profit margin. I still don’t get why the Ohio turnpik don’t have a single charger if any kind on thier road. Look like someone needs to build one on a major highway like (i80,i90)

“Somewhat surprisingly Shell is already actively moving away from gas as its ‘bread & butter’, as the company targets that, by 2025, half of its retail income to come from sales of items such as sandwiches and coffee. We suppose if people are hanging out waiting on a charge for their EVs, that sandwich and coffee business should only go higher.”

Why surprisingly? It’s well known that petrol/gasoline stations do not make money off fuel sales. This is true in all of the developed world.
Cost of building a gas station is min. ~$0.5M, not including the real estate, and the upkeep (not including buying fuel) is high — for environmental reasons.
The fuel business is break-even, and simply serves to bring the customers in for other stuff.

There are virtually no fueling stations left that don’t have at least an attached convenience store.

At whatever rate EVs will be adopted, there will be decades of both EVs and ICE vehicle needing to fuel simultaneously.

The charge station business needs major expansion in the next decade to support the expected major growth in e-vehicle sales. Big bucks are needed and management sophistication. Oil companies have the locations and dispensary operations… and the cash. Let’s welcome them.